WHEREAS:

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) owns and operates electric power transmission and distribution infrastructure serving 16 million Californians across a 70,000-square-mile service area in northern and central California;

PG&E filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2019 faced with the deteriorating condition of its aging infrastructure and substantial wildfire damage liability due to said deterioration and deferred vegetation management;

The condition of PG&E’s infrastructure continues to pose wildfire risk to lives and property and requires immediate attention to ensure the public safety;

PG&E ability to continue as a going concern is highly uncertain due to said bankruptcy proceedings and substantially depressed publicly traded share value;

The state of PG&E’s infrastructure has prompted the company to impose widespread planned power outages within its service area during red flag weather conditions in order to reduce the risk of wildfire;

Said outages have been sustained longer than 48-72 hours, disrupting the lives and businesses of millions of Californians, knocking out essential telecommunications and posing a risk to health and public safety;

PG&E management has publicly stated it could as long as 10 years to rehabilitate its infrastructure such that planned power outages during red flag weather conditions are no longer necessary;

Reliable electric power and advanced telecommunications are essential utility infrastructure in the 21st century with wide ranging benefit for Californians and their homes, businesses and public institutions;

The majority of PG&E’s distribution infrastructure is mounted overhead on utility poles that is shared by telecommunications infrastructure;

Advanced wireline delivered telecommunications infrastructure is unevenly deployed in PG&E’s service area, leaving many residents with costly, poor value service options or only substandard dialup over badly deteriorated, outdated infrastructure or satellite service;

Investor owned advanced telecommunications infrastructure owners and operators lack market or regulatory incentive to timely modernize their infrastructure to fiber optic connections reaching all residential customers in PG&E’s service area;

A growing number of local government officials in PG&E’s service area are calling for the transformation of PG&E from an investor owned utility to consumer owned utility;

WE THE UNDERSIGNED HEREBY PETITION THE GOVERNOR OF CALIFORNIA AND LEGISLATURE TO:

Immediately undertake necessary actions to timely convert PG&E from an investor-owned utility to a consumer cooperative utility providing electric power over a modernized and hardened, safe and smart grid as well as advanced telecommunications via open access fiber optic infrastructure connecting all premises served by the cooperative.